Mayor Bloomberg is trying to make New York City a healthy place to live by banning big sodas. He now is looking to take over the hospitals and ban sugary and fatty foods. We all understand that Bloomberg wants us to be healthy, but people feel he is trying to turn NYC into a “nanny state.” Click below to read more.
(AP) NEW YORK – People nervously waiting around in New York City hospitals for loved ones to come out of surgery can’t smoke. In a few months from now, they can’t have a supersized fast-food soda. And soon, they won’t even be able to get a candy bar out of the vending machine or a piece of fried chicken from the cafeteria.
In one of his latest health campaigns, Mayor Michael Bloomberg is aiming to banish sugary and fatty foods from both public and private hospitals.In recent years, the city’s 15 public hospitals have cut calories in patients’ meals and restricted the sale of sugary drinks and unhealthy snacks at vending machines. But now the city is tackling hospital cafeteria food, too. And the Healthy Hospital Food Initiative is expanding its reach: In the past year, 16 private hospitals have signed on.
Earlier this month, the city moved to ban the sale of big sodas and other sugary drinks at fast-food restaurants and theaters, beginning in March. Critics say the hospital initiative is yet another sign that Bloomberg is running a “nanny state,” even though the guidelines are voluntary and other cities – including Boston – have undertaken similar efforts.
Hospitals say it would be hypocritical of them to serve unhealthy food to patients who are often suffering from obesity and other health problems.
“If there’s any place that should not allow smoking or try to make you eat healthy, you would think it’d be the hospitals,” Bloomberg said Monday. “We’re doing what we should do and you’ll see, I think, most of the private hospitals go along with it.”
The cafeteria crackdown will ban deep fryers, make leafy green salads a mandatory option and allow only healthy snacks to be stocked near the cafeteria entrance and at cash registers. At least half of all sandwiches and salads must be made or served with whole grains. Half-size sandwich portions must be available for sale.
